Activity 1_ American Dream ideas & Plot

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Activity 1: American Dream ideas & Plot 1. What is the American Dream? TWE is the American Dream subjective? Explain. TWE has the American Dream changed over time? Explain. The American dream is the belief that success can be achieved by anybody, regardless of their social status through hard work and sacrifice. However, the American Dream is a subjective, and biased viewpoint on life in the United States. Although it is possible for anyone to achieve success, those with advantageous backgrounds such as wealthy families are almost predetermined and destined to become successful. The American Dream has also evolved over time to this present day. Compared to older times, the American Dream today is thought to be harder to achieve, and its goals are also different. The American Dream today is considered to be able to finish college with minimal debt, and to hold a stable job in order to sufficiently save for retirement. The idea of success has changed vastly from the time that the term “American Dream” had been coined. 2. Explain the events of Chapter 6, 7, 8, & 9: a. Who is Dan Cody? Why is he significant to Jay Gatz? Why does Jay Gatz become James Gatsby? Consider the significance of changing your name and the extent to which it changes the person. Dan Cody was a self made, wealthy, and successful man who made his fortune in mining. Gatsby was working nearby when he noticed Cody’s yacht, and subsequently rowed out to it. Cody offered Gatz a job as his assistant, which first exposed Gatz to the fruits of success, and the life of a wealthy man. Gatz’s time spent around Cody stirred his obsession with wealth and success and his desire to become rich, which resulted in Gatz creating a new persona in James Gatsby. This change in identity represents Gatsby’s new motivations and goals, and his obsession with wealth is embodied in his new persona of James Gatsby. b. Look at Gatsby & Tom’s confrontation in the hotel room. Daisy’s reaction was the most difficult part of the book for Fitzgerald to write. Tom is physically brutish, but he does not wield his physical power here. What is it that Tom wields over Gatsby? What does Tom “shatter”? Tom does not use any physical power, but instead he uses his position of a higher social class to put Gatsby down and destroy his reputation. Gatsby’s whole motivation for his success and his life in general was to be with Daisy, but Tom essentially shatters his dream, with Daisy staying with Tom no matter how hard Gatsby tried. In this scene, Tom disregards Gatsby’s sole motivation and goal, and takes it away from him. c. Why can’t Gatsby see what Nick sees? What does Nick feel is readily apparent, but Gatsby just simply refuses or denies or can’t possibly accept?

Gatsby’s vision does not align with Nick’s due to the fact that he is basically a romanticist, and possesses a large quantity of hope that Nick does not see. Nick knows that the possibility of Gatsby being with Daisy is gone, yet Gatsby still hangs on to the little amount of hope he has. Gatsby refuses to accept all hope is gone due her being his sole motivation in his life. This leads him to the irrational and almost impossible thoughts that he still has a chance. Activity 2: Analysis of The American Dream in The Great Gatsby : 1. Identify, explain, and argue for each character’s version/vision of the American Dream. TWE did they achieve it throughout the narrative? Explain (Tom, Daisy, Wilson, Myrtle, Nick, and Gatsby). Nick Carraway's point of view is that the American dream is no longer alive,since we can’t live our past again. Nick's past of not having an upper class family is the reason why he is never going to be equal to East Egg people. Gatsby’s version of the American dream was to be reunited with Daisy once again like in the past. As Nick mentioned that we cannot repeat the past, Gatsby’s goal to do so failed at the end, with Daisy eventually staying with Tom. Tom’s American dream was to stay wealthy and have everything a high ranking member of society would have had. He had money, a wife, and a mistress that made him feel superior which is what he wanted. Therefore, Tom achieved his American Dream in the narrative. Daisy’s American dream is selfish because although she once had and now has Gatsby; she is still in love with Tom. She can't bring herself to let one or the other go. She wants everything she can get, regardless of who gets hurt. George Wilson’s American Dream is to have someone in his life who will love him even if he is not the richest man in the world. However, this dream was shattered when he found out that his wife Myrtle had an affair with Tom. Myrtle, on the other hand, believes that marrying into wealth is the key to happiness. Myrtle believes she can achieve the American Dream by marrying into wealth and acting as if she is in a higher social class. Her dream fails when she marries George, a modest man who is not very rich, which then draws her to have an affair with Tom due to her corrupted and selfish goals. 2. As a whole: Identify and explain how the “American Dream” is presented in The Great Gatsby. TWE is Fitzgerald critical of this dream? Explain. The American Dream in The Great Gatsby is considered to be a failure, and extremely corrupted. Although it was a way to strive for wealth, it was convoluted and twisted into ways of achieving success that were not moral. The American Dream became more of an evil thought than its intended purpose of motivating and encouraging people. 3. TWE is the title of The Great Gatsby meant ironically, literally, or figuratively? I.e. TWE is Gatsby truly “Great” or not? Argue with references to the text. The title of The Great Gatsby is ironic. Nothing about Gatsby is truly great, considering the fact that he is a criminal who hides behind a fake persona. Gatsby does

not accomplish his goal of reuniting with Daisy, essentially meaning that his whole life of putting on a fake persona was a failure. Therefore, the title of the novel is meant ironically. Activity 3: Fitzgerald’s conclusion to The Great Gatsby : 1. Explain the significance of the green light. a. If this light is a symbol, what is it a symbol of? How do you know? The green light represents Gatsby’s hopes and dreams for the future. Gatsby associates it with Daisy, and in Chapter 1, he reaches toward it in the darkness as a guiding light to lead him to his goal. Since Gatsby’s quest for Daisy is associated with the American dream, the green light also symbolizes the American dream too. In Chapter 9, Nick compares the green light to how America must have looked to early settlers of the new nation. 2. Vision, perception, and blindness are explored throughout The Great Gatsby. Explain the significance of this passage when Daisy says she loved Gatsby (past tense) and then “Gatsby’s eyes opened and closed” (132). What is he seeing and then closing out? Remember Owl Eyes? The Eyes of Dr. TJ Eckleburg? Fitzgerald is clearly focused on vision, perception, and blindness or disillusionment and illusion. Gatsby’s eyes are opening and closing out the memories of the past, when he and Daisy loved each other. The language Fitzgerald uses leads the reader to believe that Gatsby is reminiscing about the past, but realizing that Daisy’s feelings have changed, and that she moved on from him, as she now loves another man. 3. Review pg. 173: Explain the significance of Gatsby’s schedule. TWE was Daisy the only driving force in his life? Explain. Was Gatsby really searching for Daisy all this time? Does this alter or change the idea that there is a love story moving Gatsby’s life? (In Chapter 7, Gatsby says Daisy’s voice sounds full of money!) Fitzgerald uses Gatsby's boyhood schedule to create an image of a determined young man who let his lust for money and status devour him. The schedule symbolizes the determination that Gatsby has for reaching his materialistic goals, but in the end he is destroyed by his materialistic dreams and his obsession of obtaining Daisy, 4. TWE is there a moral center in the novel? Explain. Jay Gatz’s failure to attain happiness leads the reader to believe that the moral of the story is that the American Dream is ultimately unattainable. Gatsby spent his entire life dedicated to the American Dream: becoming successful. However, he gets obsessed with it, and this with his lust for Daisy ultimately leads to him failing, which therefore proves this point. 5. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in 1933, “The whole idea of Gatsby is the unfairness of a poor young man not being able to marry a girl with money. This theme comes up again and again because I lived it”. a. Review pg. 173: Explain the significance of Gatsby’s schedule. TWE was Daisy the only driving force in his life? Explain.

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